First German Day in Miami

DEUTSCH TAG
First German Day in Miami Very Successful

A chorus of thirty-five kids are enthusiastically singing on stage “Wunderbar, wunderbar. Alles klar, alles klar!” In another corner of the hall, a 17-year old is discovering his interest in a German-speaking engineering program at Clemson University, South Carolina. And in the midst of all this Laura is making a seasonal greeting card that reads “I love Germany.” These are impressions from the first Miami German Day at Terra High School in Miami-Dade County, which attracted more than 300 visitors to this recently opened school in southern Miami.
“German is the most spoken language in the European Community and by far not as hard to learn as people assume,” says Eva Alexandra Countess Kendeffy, Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany, in her opening remarks that launched Miami’s German Day, which was initiated and organized by ZfA German language advisor Petra Reuter. The most important message of the day is the idea that learning German can be fun, a common theme expressed throughout the event. Participating in German Day were ten German teachers from six schools in Miami-Dade County, among them Anthony Krupp, a teacher at Coral Reef High School, a DSD German Language Diploma school, who received a surprising tribute that day: He was honored as one of three prize winners of this year’s German Embassy Teacher of Excellence Award acknowledging his dynamic teaching, his good DSD German examination scores and outstanding language skills. Also attending Miami German Day was German professor Mohamed Esa from the McDaniel College in Washington DC, who talks about German music groups like Rammstein and Tokio Hotel as casually as other professors talk about binomial formulas or theories of history. Twice the German professor from Palestine gathered about 30 youth in his workshop, in which he enthusiastically drew references between Rammstein’s song “Dalai Lama” and Goethe’s ballad “Erl-King.”

Johannes Schmidt, German professor at Clemson University in South Carolina, was approached by the older students who are interested in learning German for their studies and careers. “Since my university works closely with BMW,” explains Schmidt, “we have something to offer these students. The auto manufacturer is always interested in young people who have a more nuanced knowledge of Germany.” Also full of passion for German are the six and twelve year-olds who danced across the stage of the school cafeteria to rapping rhythms with New York-based German music educator Uwe Kind. Kind teaches colloquial and idiomatic expressions in his educational songs with catchy melodies that includes supportive body movements. “Uwe, you rock!” says German professor Esa appreciatively after the performance.

A highlight of German Day is the “Deutsch Koffer” (German suitcase) of the Echo Project 2010 which stopped in Miami on its journey through nine regions of the world to collect ideas and suggestions for contemporary German lessons that are fun for students and will attract children around the world to German. This the first Miami German Day has definitely contributed.